It is a constant source of amazement to me that so many people join the church as if it were some sort of social club. After all it’s a club whose charter was written specifically to attract the biggest f@&%ups on the planet. 

Full of drop outs and losers, our founder was a Palestinian refugee, born out of wedlock to a teenage mother. He led a rabble of fishermen, prostitutes and accountants who specialised in theft. From these most unlikely beginnings, the founder was in one weekend greeted as a king and then executed in one of the most gruesome ways known to man. Most of the early adopters died many miles from their homes and families, having been fed to lions in front of crowds of cheering onlookers by the authorities of the day. Where the church has become nothing more than a social club it is probably the worst social club in the world!

Our leader asks not that we adhere to a few rules which will see us safely into heaven before the ungodly. Rather with the promise of adoption into the royal line, He asks that we participate with Him in the redemption of all creation! Probably overreaching somewhat for a religious leader from the back of beyond. He must never have studied cost benefit decision making models, no one in their right mind would agree to those terms. Where the church has become nothing more than a religious institution, it is probably the worst religious institution in the world!

The church has to be more than just another civil association; it must be everything to its members or nothing. Jesus laid it out right at the start “if any man come after me, he must first count the cost”. We are a church so caught up with techniques to attract and retain members that we have forgotten who it is that we chase after. Because of this obsession with building retentive communities, we have unrealistic, or rather misplaced expectations. Jesus never promised a perfect community, He never promised perfect teaching, worship and cordial relations, even in his little group of twelve one of His own brothers would betray Him to death on a cross. 

No, the church is no good unless she realises her calling and begins to work in earnest to re-incarnate Jesus in the world. There is great cost down that road, but there is no sense in going half way, it’s an all or nothing kind of trip. So take some time to count the cost and if you are willing, throw your whole lot in, and join the greatest and most exciting socio-political-spiritual-material-movement-of-people in human history.